Collateral Damage
by soleilnoire
Summary: Blood was everywhere, trickling through the cracks in the pavement and creating a gruesome red spider web pattern across the ground.' How will the Marauders cope when one of them is grievously injured? What will be damaged beyond repair before the end? AU
1. Gathering Clouds

**Collateral Damage**

_Chapter One - Gathering Clouds_

A/N Revised seventh of August '07!

The air was full of that crackling tension that came before a thunderstorm. In a dingy little corner of Muggle London a young man whiled away his hours in a gloomy little store.

Jake looked up at the gathering clouds and wished he were back home, instead of being stuck working his holidays away in the goddamned general store. He leaned back on the counter and glanced at his watch. Ten to five, it was just about time to start shutting up shop.

He stepped out around the counter, narrowly avoiding the precariously balanced display of Starburst products. His new shoes squeaked as he walked across the cracked and peeling linoleum. It was the only sound in the store. The quiet outside and in the store was unnerving and Jake shook his head slightly, as if trying to dislodge that sense of unease lingering at the back of his skull.

For a moment he watched the street outside through the grimy shop window.

Fog hung low over the streets outside as Jake flipped the 'Open' sign over to 'Closed'. He hesitated for a moment and the keys got stuck in the pocket of his jeans as his fingers fumbled over them. That unease wasn't moving, if anything it was growing, making his fingers fumble with the keys.

A loud crack like a car backfiring exploded into the silence. The door suddenly flew open, cracking Jake on the nose and sending the keys flying out of his hand.

A young man crashed into the store, his wet shoes skidding on the floor.

"Quick!" yelled the wild-eyed man, "Water, er, Bandages, quick!"

Jake didn't move, he physically couldn't move his gaze from the hem of the strange cloak that the young man was wearing. It had left a garish red trail across the floor where it had trailed and had completely frozen Jake's ability to think or speak.

The man followed Jake's gaze and for a single moment it seemed as if the wild energy in him faded. He sighed and sagged closer into himself.

"I'm sorry," The words seemed strangely vulnerable coming from such a proud face. "Accio Water!"

Jake watched in numb shock as the fridge containing dozens of bottles of Mount Franklin exploded. The glass shattered as the plastic bottles _flew _across the store and landed neatly at the man's feet. Jake looked up and felt a chill in his heart to see the strange man already watching him.

The hand holding a nondescript brown stick dropped limply to the man's side. He looked strangely at Jake again and for a moment no one in the store moved.

Jake looked away from the man for a moment, then another loud crack burst into the silence. When he finally looked up, the man was gone and so were some of the bottles of water scattered across the floor.

Blood was everywhere, trickling through the cracks in the pavement and creating a gruesome red spider web pattern across the ground. The entire street was splashed with it.

James shuddered involuntarily, recalling how the blood had simply _exploded _from Remus before he had hit the ground. His fingers curled tighter around his wand and he tried not notice how his hands were shaking.

Peter was looking at him expectantly, an anxious frown creasing his forehead.

"James, what are you going to do?" Peter whispered.

"I don't know!" James realised too late that he was shouting and tears were burning almost painfully at the corners of his eyes. He looked up as Sirius returned, apparating only centimetres away from Peter's left shoulder.

He was carrying bottles of water.

It was at that moment that Remus decided gain consciousness. He spluttered and gasped, his eyes screwed shut with pain. James watched Sirius's face and decided if his best friend's face told anything, Sirius was in as much pain as Remus, if not more.

"I can't heal this." James said his voice wobbling like a thirteen-year-old's. "We need to find a healer."

"But St Mungo's has shut down!" Pete was visibly trembling, the seriousness of the situation having caught up with him.

"I know!" James shouted again and Sirius jumped. James sighed, "Sirius apparate to HQ and get a healer. Or anyone. Get help."

Sirius simply nodded and apparated without another sound.

Peter looked at the Muggle bottled water.

"Why'd you send Padfoot to get water, Prongs? You could have conjured some."

"To get him out of the way." James replied, his gaze fixed on Moony's unmoving figure. Tears were blurring his vision, making the sight of Moony in a spreading pool of blood swim nauseatingly. "He looked upset."

Where was Lily? James suddenly needed to see her, to hear her snap at him and call him 'Potter' with her pretty freckled nose in the air. A tear dripped off the end of his long nose, splashing onto the pavement. And he couldn't have cared less.

"Are you okay, James?"

"No."

"What hit him?" Poppy Pomfrey's voice was sharp and worried, a fact that didn't serve to reassure James or Sirius at all. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"We're not sure," James glanced at Sirius, who looked equally stressed.

"It sounded like Sectum-scess-pra or something." Sirius said, his grey eyes worried.

James noticed that Padfoot's hands were shaking nearly as much as his own.

"Will he be okay?" The voice that came from Sirius was so vulnerable that it almost hurt James to hear it.

"I can't promise anything," Madam Pomfrey said, then her voice softened. "Here, drink this, it'll make you feel better." She passed them both beakers of steaming potion.

The potion didn't taste unpleasant, but it burnt all the way down. As the world began to tilt weirdly around James, he realised it was probably some kind of sleeping potion. Beside him, Sirius slid off his chair, the potion effecting his thinner frame more quickly.

"Where is he?" Lily sounded stressed.

James looked up, making an effort to remain conscious. A bright red blur burst into the room.

"Lily…?" he said through the fog of sleep that was descending quickly. He stretched out his hand and felt her catch it, before he too slipped off his chair completely.

"Oh, James," The little tremble in her voice scared him immensely.


	2. To Remember the Dead

**Collateral Damage**

Chapter Two – To Remember the Dead

_A/N Thanks to __**Dark Fairy of Chaos**__! Your enthusiasm gave me the motivation not to be lazy. Also thanks to __**acidxlullaby **__and __**the-missing-marauder**__ for the reviews. _

_P.S Revised seventh of August'07. _

He couldn't shake the cold. It was travelling through his veins like ice, unshaken by the blankets heaped upon him or the roaring fire in one corner of the infirmary. A cough welled up inside him and burst out, shaking his bruised and broken body. Blood welled up inside his mouth, tasting metallic and bitter.

Pale figures fluttered around him, pouring potions and whispering spells. But he knew it wasn't working.

Remus knew about life and death. That strange transition that could last years, but ended in a single moment when the light in your eyes faded into bleak nothingness. He curled further into himself, ignoring the tearing pain that burned all across his torso.

He didn't want to die. Not yet.

Cold that burned, like the touch of frozen iron on a winter's day, scorched his insides. His thoughts melted into ice, faded away into blackness as Sirius peered down through bleak eyes that were almost that of a dead man's.

Remus's eyes looked like bruises in his flushed and unresponsive face. He was shivering as if cold, yet his cheek was too hot to touch. Sirius jerked his hand away, like it hurt him and looked over into Madam Pomfrey's tired brown eyes.

She pressed a cold cloth to the fevered forehead, but recoiled as the werewolf shied away, his eyes rolling back into his head in obvious pain.

"What's wrong with him?" Sirius demanded, fright making his voice harder than he had intended.

The tired woman almost flinched away from the man's hard eyes, but remembered the frightened boy who was just scared for his friend and held herself just in time.

"The wounds resist every healing charm and anti-infection spell I know. The fever is his body trying to reject the poisons that are building up inside him."

Sirius sank into a chair, but couldn't keep still. He put his head into his hands to avoid seeing one of his best friends in pain.

"Can I do anything to help?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Report to Benji Fenwick," she sighed, referring to one of the older Order members. "Maybe one of the Aurors will know something to combat this dark magic."

Sirius got up from the chair, moving like a tired old man. He walked numbly out into familiar corridors of Hogwarts, barely feeling the chill of winter that had wrapped its icy tentacles around the castle and taken hold.

It was strange, shouts and the buzz of chatter didn't fill the high ceilings of Hogwarts, as it did in his memories of the place. The school had shut down the year after they had left, bowing into the ever-approaching war that had threatened to overwhelm Wizarding England. The Hogwarts Castle had since become the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, the powerful spells of the founders making it the ultimate place.

Sirius mindlessly made his way up to Gryffindor tower, wondering vaguely where James was and trying not to remember the pain-dark colour of Remus's golden eyes.

James and Lily were sitting together on the Marauder's favourite couch in the Gryffindor common room when Sirius found them. Sirius didn't know what was going on between them. If he remembered back when the Order had seemed like a great adventure, he recalled that Lily been paired up with them when they were all straight out of Hogwarts and the Marauders were the only people she really knew.

But Lily Evans was alright, he admitted to himself, and she could throw a good curse as well. Come to think of it, Sirius thought, he wouldn't have minded her help back there in that old alleyway. He shuddered violently and walked around the back of the couch to face both of them.

They looked very cosy, like a couple and Lily seemed to fit perfectly into the curve of James's arm.

"How is he?" Prongs asked abruptly as he saw Sirius. He ran his hand through his hair nervously in that typically James fashion. Lily also peered up at him worriedly, through those startling green eyes that always seemed too dark against her pale skin.

"Still alive," he barked out a laugh that held no amusement and flinched away from Lily's hand that stretched out as if to hold him back. From what, he wondered, to hold him back from what?

"He's not good, he's really bad. Not even Pomfrey knows what to do now."

He could see the tears standing in James eyes and watched silently as his friend started to fall apart. That blasted numbness was rising in his chest again, choking up his throat and muffling his senses. The worse thing was that he was screwed over past emotion now, past breaking apart like James was.

"I have to report to Fenwick, Prongs," he said quietly. "Pomfrey thinks the Aurors might know something to help Moony."

James gathered himself quickly, hugging Lily briefly.

"I'll come," he said bracingly, but it was his eyes that eased Sirius, his eyes that plainly said 'we're in this together, mate,'

"I'm going to have a shower, boys," Lily said as they got up and began to move towards the Portrait Hole, "I'll be up in the dormitory when you finish up."

She'd had every intention of going and washing up, trying to fool herself into believing that everything was normal, but her feet carried her in the opposite direction.

Darkness had descended over the Hospital Wing in her absence. It looked very lonely with the only moving figure in the ward Madam Pomfrey. She was still fussing around in her office, pouring potions and whispering incantations.

Lily walked to the end of the ward, pulling her blue cardigan closer around her shoulders. But it wasn't the cold that made her shiver.

He looked so young, so vulnerable that Lily was on the verge of tears when she sat at the end of the bed. His eyes looked darker than normal, his bleak pupils swollen to the size that they concealed his pale brown iris from view. She brushed his sandy brown hair out of his face, forgetting for a moment that he was nineteen not ten.

"You have to live," she lay back against the bed, staring up at the ceiling and whispering to the unconscious boy beside her. "Please?"

Benji Fenwick, Head of the Auror Department and important member of the Order of the Phoenix was sitting at his desk when James and Sirius came in. His desk and the main briefing room was in the Staff Wing of Hogwarts.

He looked ill, deep shadows under his eyes proving how long and hard he had worked for the Order.

"Boys, please sit down," he said in that brisk way of his, gesturing to a couple of chintz armchairs close up to the comforting fire.

"Report, sir?" James asked after a moment when Fenwick didn't give his customary bark of 'Report!'

"No thanks, Potter," he said with a slight frown creasing his sun-browned forehead. "Minerva gave me the specifics." Dark bushy eyebrows came down even further as James and Sirius made slight noises of confusion. "Quiet," he demanded, holding up his hand. "I assumed you two knew that you were here to receive your next mission briefing. You are to leave tonight."

James and Sirius looked at each other for a moment, both sporting identical looks of horror and confusion.

"But Remus - " Sirius started, before he was rudely cut off.

"I heard about that business, regrettable of course -"

"He's dying, of course it's fucking _regrettable_," James shouted, his face completely free of colour and his hazel eyes blazing.

"Calm down, Mr Potter," Fenwick soothed in an annoyingly calm fashion. "The situation that Mr Lupin is in is out of our control. But the Muggles and innocent wizarding folk that are dying at the hands of _His _Death Eaters, now that's something you can change."

Sirius barely heard a word that Fenwick was saying, the man was a _moron._

"IF HE'S GOING TO _DIE_, THEN I'M GOING TO FUCKING BE THERE WHEN HE DOES," he shouted, pain and sheer grief bitter poison on his tongue.

"MR BLACK!" Fenwick thundered, getting out of his chair, his blue eyes popping with rage, "_Control yourself!_" he took a deep breath, but that didn't seem to quell his anger. Nor the colour of his face, which was slowly turning purple. "Do you think Frank Longbottom sat down and gave up when his mother was tortured and injured in front of his eyes?" the Auror's voice was dangerously low and deceptively calm. "Do you think Molly Weasley spent the rest of her days crying uselessly after her both her brothers were viciously murdered? Did Mrs Dearborn leave the Order after her husband disappeared? After Edgar Bones and his whole family were killed did Amelia tell me that she was ready to give up and go home? Even though Edgar was her twin brother and the closest relative she had in the world?" he took a deep shaky breath and James felt very extremely sorry for him. "_No they didn't!_" he roared "They got up again and fought, because they knew that if we all give up then everyone will die and if everyone dies then there's no one left to remember the dead."

For a while the room was silent and Fenwick sat down again, the anger and energy draining out of him like water through a sieve.

"Sorry, sir" James said softly, "we'll do it," he didn't look at Sirius.

Sirius looked into the flickering blue and gold flames of the magical fire and felt immeasurably tired.

Fenwick took a deep breath and swallowed.

"Okay boys, you'll have to leave tonight."

P.S I know people out there enjoyed the first chapter, I can see the alerts, it'd be nicer actually if you reviewed, it makes me feel less like a failure. It doesn't need to be long or critical, sometimes I think just a :) would be nice…


	3. The Obvious Lack of a Plan

Chapter Three - The Obvious Lack of a Plan

_Thanks for the reviews, people! You're all wonderful! D Now Enjoy!!_

Lily stepped out of the shower stall, the twisting tendrils of steam curling her long red hair. Green eyes started relentlessly back at her as she searched for a clue, something in those seemingly mindless dark eyes that would tell her something. Her reflection blinked and she turned away, pulling her towel closer as the steam dissipated and the warmth faded away.

Lily Evans didn't know what she was looking for anymore. It had been for revenge at first. Revenge because her healer career had never gotten on track and her friends had drifted away into hiding and abroad. Revenge because Sev was a 'bad guy' and her parents were gone.

Then she'd come to the Order because she was angry and lonely. The Marauders were familiar and Lily had found herself enjoying their presence, despite the war, despite the dying and the angst and the loneliness. Because they still laughed and James still seemed hopelessly in love with her.

Lily dressed methodically, wondering vaguely what her late parents would have said if she told them that she was in love with a wizard. A wizard with adorably messy hair and very attractive hazel eyes almost hidden behind round glasses. She smiled.

The world was very quiet as she made her way up the stairs and into the boy's dormitory. The dormitory where Lily and the Marauders usually stayed when they were back at Hogwarts for any length of time between missions. To her surprise it was empty, the curtains fluttering in the wind and there was no one at all.

Then she caught sight of the owl. It blinked innocently at her and she felt like crying. These last few days had been hell and if this message said what she thought it did…

'Lily,

Me and Sirius are off to London tonight on Fenwick's orders.

Go see Remus for me. I think Pete's with the rest of the Order

down in the kitchens. Don't be lonely. Sirius says hi.

Love, James.'

Lily started to cry. Quietly at first so she barely noticed it. Then loud sobs burst out of her as she sank onto the bed, crying as if the world was coming to an end. Remus was dying and Sirius and James were out in London where the fighting was the thickest, without her nor Remus to protect them with their textbook knowledge of virtually everything.

Inevitably, in Lily's eyes, it all came down to goodbyes in the end. Everyone was leaving. Getting the hell out of wherever they were and she was left standing in the figurative rain without even an umbrella.

Sirius found himself trying to remember back when morals had been black and white, rather than that hazy instinct grey they were now. He followed James, lingering a step behind, his cold fingers stiff and cramped around his wand.

With Crouch in power at the Ministry, Sirius could kill. A Death Eater could die at his hands and he could walk free. The thought scared him sometimes and deep down inside a cowering part of him was horribly afraid of what he could do knowing that. Sirius had never been the good boy.

Before the war things had been so simple, Slytherin was the enemy and Gryffindor knew no wrong. The Unforgivable Curses were just that, unforgivable. Sirius sighed and in the cold, his breath whispered silver out into the bleak night.

Then this. Sirius remembered the dreams he'd had of killing Death Eaters, dreams that would change to nightmares when he pulled a Death Eater's mask away. He'd pull it away and see Regulus staring back at him through those unfathomable grey eyes identical to Sirius's own.

"Sirius!" James hissed, pulling him roughly into the shadow of a doorway. "Pay attention, we're here."

Here was in a quiet street. Most houses were boarded up and deserted, but behind the windows directly across the street, pale yellow light glowed.

"Who are we looking for?" asked Sirius, shaking his head free of the memories and attempting to concentrate.

"Raffella Lestrange," James replied without hesitation. "She's supposed to be involved in the Prewett deaths and Dumbledore wants her in for interrogation.

"Right." Sirius didn't like taking girls, especially girls who were his crazy cousin, Bellatrix's, best friends. Not his favourite cousin anymore, they were on different sides of the war now. "And what's the plan?"

"Plan?" James scratched the back of his head with his wand and frowned. The faint streetlight glinted off his glasses, blinding Sirius and making his expression hard to read. "That's normally Moony's area of expertise…"

Sirius's throat tightened and his chest constricted at the mention of something he'd been trying desperately to forget.

"…but I say we use a couple of disillusionment charms and scout around before we do anything."

"Ok,"

James tapped his wand on Sirius's head and with a sudden chill Sirius blended right into the dirty alley wall behind him. He did the same for James and warily they approached the house.

The contents of the phial glittered black in the faint candlelight. She sat in her mother's favourite chair and wondered what her brothers would do if they were in her situation. No doubt they wouldn't disobey the Dark Lord in the first place.

She'd just been trying to get out. But it had been too late. When she was sixteen she'd tied herself to the Dark Lord's cause and it was far too late to back out now.

Would it be like an adventure, like a nightmare or would there simply be nothing?

She thought fleetingly of her brothers, Rodolphus and Rabastan, her best friend and sister-in-law, Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black, about her enemies and all those people in between. She wondered if anyone would miss her when she was gone.

In a sudden fit of courage she threw back her head and tossed down the lethal overdose in one swallow. A drip trickled down her chin and splashed against her wrist, gleaming silver and black. The single candle spluttered and died as she sat still, too scared to move.

A wild sob tore at her throat as she realised what she'd done. Tears gushed down her cheeks and she put her horrified, shaking hands to her face.

"I'm going to die," the words flew from her lips as bubbles, shining unnaturally blue in the darkness. Suddenly she giggled, barely aware of the part of her inside that was screaming and crying hysterically. Death wouldn't matter as long as she was high.

"As long as I'm high!" she whispered to the lithe silver shadows that were hiding in the closed off corners of her parlour. They whispered untold secrets back at her.

Wild fireworks were going off inside her head. The still sane part of her marvelled at how the potion had taken effect so quickly. It wouldn't be long now. Soon the lethal side of the dangerously addictive potion would show and eventually she'd die of the overdose, though no doubt she'd be too high to notice.

"I'm dying!" she shrieked with glee and wonder, standing up and knocking over the chair. The room exploded with colour as she danced in circles. "I'm leaving! I'm finally going!

The room was swaying around her like the deck of a tossing ship. Her vision was hazy, but she was sure she could see other people or creatures slipping through the clouds of fog that had descended. Voices whispered, sung and cried for peace beyond the curtain the divided the mortal world from the immortal.

She was as high as a kite when without any warning a figure loomed out of the darkness.

Colours and visions faded, though bright lights still pulsed in time with her heart beat in her skull. In a single moment of clarity she saw through the potion induced haze and into the world behind. Recognition sparked somewhere within her mind.

"Regulus?" tears came unbidden to her eyes, rolling a familiar path down her gaunt cheeks.

Bright silver eyes blinked in almost comic surprise.

"Raffella Lestrange?" Sirius asked, holding his wand up high and peering into the mad girl's eyes.

"mm?" she murmured, talking to someone or something beyond him. Her pupils were huge, so big that you could only see the slightest sliver of iris surrounding her jagged black pupils.

"You're high!" he exclaimed, noticing the empty phial on the floor. She wasn't listening to him anymore, preferring to converse with mid air.

He stood still for a moment, utterly confused. This definitely wasn't going according to plan. He started to pull the mirror out of the pocket sewn in his robes, perhaps James would think up a plan. He was about to call James when the girl looked at him through her soft brown curls and started to speak.

"I heard about what happened to your friend," she sank into a chair, peering up at him through those massive, scarily black eyes. "In fact, I was supposed to dispose of him," she sighed and looked down at her 'way out', at the traces of the potion streaking the murky glass. "I couldn't. Which I why I'm now expecting a visit from the Dark Lord or more likely one of his many evil minions."

Sirius gaped at her.

"I had a massive crush on your friend when I was in sixth year, Bellatrix didn't approve of course, so nothing came of it. But that's not why I didn't do it. I wouldn't have sacrificed my life because of a childhood crush. I'm not quite sure why I didn't."

The wind battered against the window pane and a tree outside creaked ominously. Sirius wondered vaguely where James was.

"Is he dying? Am I dying for nothing? I couldn't save Regulus, I can't save him and I can't save myself,"

Raffella would have cried if she had the energy. But she felt weak, like she'd been sick for weeks and weeks on end. The Gryffindor fool was still standing there, watching her warily.

"Just do it, finish me off," she sneered at him, her aching body taut with fear, "that's what you've come for, right?"

"No – I - I guess – well,"

"You should ask Severus," the sudden change of topic caught Sirius by surprise. "He knows enough, get Evans to ask him. Hell, he'd do anything for her."

"To save him?" Sirius asked, leaning forward with sudden eagerness, "Snape can save him?"

"I don't know," her vision was getting fuzzy and she could barely make out the shape of the man standing across the room. She let herself flop back into the chair and listened to her heart beat slow.

"I'm sorry," Sirius didn't know quite what he was sorry for, but he felt remorseful nonetheless.

Raffella just sighed and slowly but surely her heart thudded to a stop.

Silence.


	4. A Helping Hand

Chapter Four – A Helping Hand

"_And I want these words to make things right_

_But it's the wrongs that make the words come to life_

_"Who does he think he is?"_

_If that's the worst you got_

_Better put your fingers back to the keys_

_Been looking forward to the future_

_But my eyesight is going bad_

_A__nd this crystal ball_

_It's always cloudy except for _

_When you look into the past_"

Thnks fr th mmrs - Fall Out Boy

**A/N** Thanks to everyone for the encouragement, 'specially **Dark Fairy of Chaos **who (again) got me off my lazy butt to update. So read and don't forget to leave me a review!

"She's dead," James said in his usual blunt fashion.

"Obviously," Sirius was on the point of snarling when he realised that James was watching him sort of warily.

"You 'kay, mate?"

"Fine," Sirius brushed a hand over his face and left the murky room without hesitation. James lingered at the doorway, glancing back at the still figure in the chair with a slightly bemused expression.

"You're just going to leave her there?" James was watching him with narrowed eyes again, fully aware that something wasn't quite right. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Fine." Sirius replied, in a very acidic tone. He peered down the stairs with caution, watching the shadows with the well-taught eye that Mad-Eye Moody had drilled into them. "I suspect we'll have company any second now."

"Wha- wait, Padfoot!" James hurried after him, hazel eyes flashing with frustration. He grabbed Sirius' arm, not unkindly, but roughly jerked him back to face him. "What on earth's going on?"

"She said, before she died, that she was expecting a visit from the Death Eaters. So I thought – are you planning on letting go of my arm?" Sirius sent a familiar silver-eyed glare in James' direction and fixed a haughty expression on his face. "I think you're cutting off my circulation."

James let himself relax a little, but couldn't shake the uneasy feeling out of the back of his mind. A faint popping noise sounded at the bottom of the stairs and Sirius turned a horrified glance towards him.

"Bugger," James blurted out, before letting go of Padfoot's arm and whipping back into the shadow of the parlour.

"Told you so," Sirius replied absently as footsteps creaked on the stairs. The people coming up were hooded and cloaked, but made no effort to conceal their presence.

"Apparate – Hogsmeade," James said shortly as the Death Eaters' footsteps advanced, muffled by the hall carpet. He grabbed Sirius' wand-arm before the silly fool could do something stupid and concentrated very hard on the Three Broomsticks.

There was a blinding flash of light in his head and he felt like he was trapped inside a very small space. He would have screamed if he could, but he couldn't draw enough breath to do so.

Sirius felt James' hand fall away from his sleeve and turned to look at him. James fell very neatly, his knees folding and his chest hitting his knees until he was a neatly folded pile on the floor. Sirius just gaped for a moment and then hearing the voices in the corridor beyond, quietly panicked.

His eyes caught on the tapestry on the far wall and without anymore dithering, he heaved James up and dragged him across the floor, watching the doorway with his heart thudding triple time in his chest. Luckily for him there was, as he had guessed, a little alcove in the wall that served as a secret hiding place in times of strife. He dragged his heavy, unconscious friend into the space, wincing slightly as James' head smacked against the stone. He was just in time, the tapestry flapped back into place as the three cloaked figures stepped into the room.

"Did you see something, Rookwood? Because I could have sworn-"

Sirius tapped his wand against the black material and whispered a complicated charm under his breath. Transparency fanned out across the curtain, letting him see into the dark room beyond. It was the most odd feeling, exposed, yet knowing (and hoping) that no one could see him.

"-Stay focused, Macnair," Rookwood was saying as he glanced around the room. Macnair nodded, watching the third figure warily. Sirius felt his breath catch in his throat as he realised that it was Bellatrix, her luxurious wave of pure black hair hiding her face as she bent over Raffella Lestrange. He couldn't see her expression but he also couldn't see any outwards signs of grief.

He looked down at James and wondered in what kind of state he'd be in if his best friend died. With a sudden flash of despair, Remus' face swam into his mind, laughing at something Peter had said, telling off James for annoying Lily one time too many, smiling at Sirius over his Arithmancy textbook…

"You're off the hook this time, Lestrange," Rookwood was saying, his greasy pockmarked face twisted with malice. "But I'm sure there'll be another chance to prove your worth and loyalty to the Dark Lord."

Bellatrix stood up straight, looking down her nose at Rookwood through flashing dark eyes.

"My loyalty to the Dark Lord surpasses even yours, Augustus, make no mistake about that," looking away from the fuming man, she swept her glance around the room, pulling out her wand. Never once did her gaze flick to the dead girl in the chair. Then she turned back to the still figure and pointed her wand with purpose.

"Incendio," the word was said without any emotion, without any inflection or meaning behind the simple charm. Bellatrix watched the body burn, her smooth handsome face impassive.

Then the moment passed and Sirius let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. James stirred in his corner of the alcove and groaned faintly. Sirius clapped his hand over Prongs' mouth, but it was too late, the damage was already done.

"Did you hear-" Macnair was jumpy, dancing at the slightest shift of the shadows, but Bellatrix was frowning too.

Rookwood raised his wand,

"Homenum revelio"

Sirius felt a faint tugging sensation at his navel and watched with horror as the three dark figures stiffened and realised that there was someone else in the room.

Bellatrix looked at the tapestry suspiciously and Sirius raised his wand, ready for her to figure out what he had only ten minutes ago.

"Reducto!" Bellatrix snapped and Sirius ducked as the tapestry fell away in shreds. He grabbed James and heaved him behind the shelter of an overly large desk. Bellatirx shrieked in surprised and was knocked aside as Rookwood lunged. Sirius dodged the leaping man and sent a particularly nasty leg-locking curse in Macnair's direction. Bella shot an exploding hex at him, her mouth curled in a malicious sneer.

He ducked the stream of hard red light and felt something explode behind him.

Dust was billowing in the air and he vaguely glimpsed Macnair thumping Rookwood hard over the head while mistaking him for the intruder. He bit back a laugh and flicked his wand at Bella, who was making her way around the remnants of the desk, her face twisted with rage.

"I should have known you were meddling in this somehow, Sirius," she snarled as the force of his spell sent her flying into the wall.

Sirius blindly made his way through the dust, James sagging at his shoulder. The dust was falling but he couldn't figure out which way the door was. It wouldn't be long until the three would be able to see him and he still couldn't figure his way out and James was starting to get heavy again…

Rookwood loomed out of the shadow like a dark bird of prey and raised his wand with a nasty smile on his ugly face. With his both hands supporting James, Sirius couldn't reach his wand, so he ducked and hoped that Rookwood was in a charitable mood.

There was a bang and a shout and Macnair slammed into Rookwood, completely unconscious. Rookwood struggled, but a twisting jet of blue light stopped him in his tracks.

Sirius' knees gave out and he tumbled onto the floor, James a dead weight beside him.

"Who's there," he yelled, pulling his wand-arm out from under the stirring young man beside him.

There was a flash and a shout and the sound of shattering glass. Sirius stood and watched through the haze of dust as his cousin launched himself out the window, floating down to the pavement like a feather and apparating with a pop.

He turned back to his rescuer and felt his jaw drop unintelligently.


	5. Memories

A/N It's a slightly longer chapter and I hope it makes up for my absence of late. Thanks for the reviews and to everyone who has stuck by me throughout this story. It's been a rather difficult haul, what with senior classes and all, but nevertheless it's been wonderful to have all your encouragement.

So for all who have me or this story on their favourites and for the spectacular authors of all my reviews, this chapter is for you and I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to leave a review!

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Chapter Four – Memories

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Unconnected memories, flashes of images and sounds too quick to follow, are drifting across her mind like clouds blowing rapidly across a clear sky.

---

"_You gave Sirius a what?" Lily asked incredulously, raising her eyebrows._

"_A motorbike, yeah, good idea, huh?" James said, tugging at her sleeve. "Come see,"_

_His bright hazel eyes sparkled with excitement and Lily felt her breath catch in her throat. She'd thought she was over him. He'd happened in Seventh Year and then it ended and that had been that. _

"_You alright?" James raised a sharp eyebrow mockingly, and Lily realised that she'd been staring. Blushing furiously, Lily made her way out of the little kitchen._

_Peter was standing in the middle of the yard, whooping with joy and pointing up at a dark speck contrasted against the evening sky. Remus was leaning against the fence, arms crossed over his chest, looking torn between worry and laughter. _

"_He got it to fly!" James exclaimed, letting go of her sleeve and peering up at the sky, laughing buoyantly. _

_Lily rolled her eyes. Boys will be boys, right? After a few minutes she left them to it and returned to the house. _

_She was fetching a cup of tea from the Potter's kitchen when there was a dull roar and an ear-splitting crash. With a curse muffled by the scone in her mouth, she dropped her mug and raced to the doorway. _

_Remus was hauling a blackened James from the wreckage of the bike. For a heart-stopping moment, Lily thought he'd been hurt. A second glance proved that he was grinning from ear to ear. Peter tugged Sirius out from under the remains of the Potter's garden shed._

"_Hey, Evans!" Sirius called, spotting her across the yard. He wobbled rather unsteadily in her direction, pressing a hand to the gash on his cheek. "Did you see? We got it up fifty feet before the flying charm cut out!" _

_Remus snorted, waved his wand and the cut on Sirius's cheek healed up with out a mark. _

"_Happy Birthday," Lily said faintly, her eyes still fixed on James. _

"_Yeah, it's been great," Sirius said enthusiastically, only upright by the clutching grasp he had of Remus' sleeve. "But I think I'm going to pass ou –"_

_He crumpled in a dead faint. Remus didn't look unduly worried, only caught Lily's eye with a wry smile on his face. Peter staggered towards them, supporting his much taller friend with difficulty. _

"_You should have seen us, Lils, it was awesome!" James said, sitting down on one of the outside chairs. "Hey, what happened to Sirius?"_

"_He fainted," Remus said, a smile twitching at the corner of his mouth. He was bending over the young man, a hand on the pulse on his neck. _

"_Always was a little excitable, our Padfoot," said James loftily, with the superior air of someone who had also survived the fifty foot freefall and hadn't fainted yet. _

Lily couldn't hold back a giggle. James looked somewhat surprised, but gratified nonetheless.

_---_

A different cloud…

---

_The porch was dark, a welcome contrast to the loud and vibrant party inside the house. Lily curled up like a cat in the swinging chair, tucking her long stockinged legs underneath her. _

_How could they party when the war raged on their doorsteps, threatening at any moment to come inside? She sighed and took a healthy swig from the glass clenched in her hand. _

"_James is looking for you," _

_Lily started, whipping her head around. Peter's eyes were shadowed in the darkness and she couldn't quite make out his expression. He'd seemed to have gotten taller since he'd last seen him, which had only been a couple of weeks ago. _

_She couldn't quite place the feeling, but something just wasn't right. Peter looked different. _

_He looked away from her as he stepped into the soft light of the doorway, his eyes unreadable. Lily narrowed her eyes as she watched him. As he walked through the door, an almost undiscernible change passed over his face and there was the old familiar Peter she knew. He was anxious and slightly uncomfortable, neither handsome nor ugly, only nondescript and pale. _

_Lily jerked her eyes away almost forcibly, bright amber liquid slopping out of her glass and over her hand. The firewhisky tingled on her skin, pleasantly warm in a slightly impossible way that made her think of magic. _

_"I've had too much to drink," she murmured to herself, shaking away the unpleasant feeling at the back of her mind. _

_She could hear James from some where inside the house, calling her name. She wondered vaguely what he wanted. Regretfully, she glanced around at her comfy little place on the swinging chair, at the breath of wind that was gently stirring the trees. Then she got up and went inside. _

---

Present day.

James could hear voices somewhere above him, just a little too far out of reach for his brain to grasp. Tensing slightly, he blearily opened his eyes, hoping against hope that he wasn't being held captive by vicious Death Eaters.

" –what are _you_ doing here?"

James recognised Sirius' voice faintly tinged with shock and let himself relax a little. Blinking quickly he focused on the two shadowy shapes above him and attempted to sit up. White-hot pain lanced through his head and he didn't have any time to cry out before he found himself lying on the floor again.

Then he remembered where he was; in that horrible dark, cold house, searching for that wraith-like Death Eater girl. His memories after that seemed strangely blank.

The voices intensified, echoing around him, speaking over his head. Sirius sounded tired, but James didn't recognise the softer murmur of the second voice.

"…stay still," said the second voice, sounding violently familiar to James' scrambled mind. "Don't move just yet, James…"

Then it clicked.

"Lily?" James murmured, opening his eyes again, "What are you doing here?"

Lily's thin worried face swam into focus, leaning over him with a strangely tender expression. Sirius was peering over her green-clad shoulder, a dark bruise beginning to appear on his grimy, handsome face.

"Dumbledore sent me," Lily replied moving backwards and helping him sit up. "I think he's worried about R-Remus,"

Neither James nor Sirius missed the slight catch in her voice. Somehow for both of them the room seemed a little bit darker. The little light from Lily's wand cast heavy shadows on her sharp face, making her seem about ten years older.

"We need to get out of here," Sirius was looking at Lily, an uncharacteristically anxious look twisting his face. The dark walls felt as if they were closing him away, trapping him within the terrible house forever. He felt twitchy and the spark of worry behind Lily's eyes wasn't helping.

"We can't apparate," James gritted out shortly, struggling to his feet with Sirius' help. "I tried. There must be some kind of twisted apparition wards over this house."

Lily nodded, "It makes sense, that must be why you fainted –"

"I didn't _faint_," James managed huffily, breathing heavily as Sirius helped him out the door and down the stairs. "I was merely briefly incapacitated,"

Lily rewarded him with a small smile and a very green-eyed look. Sirius chuckled breathlessly, holding most of James' weight off the ground.

The house was still dark and quiet and creepy and Sirius was glad to be free of the confining smell and his own overwhelming memories of an unhappy childhood. It was still dark on the street outside, but bleak early morning light was appearing on the edge of London's grimy horizon.

"Where are we headed?" he asked, eyes constantly scanning his surrounds, watching for that single shadowy movement that could spell out death for them all. Lily seemed to be leading them somewhere, equally cautiously, her wand held out in front of them like a sword.

"Peter's waiting with the portkey," she replied briskly, her curt tone reminding Sirius sharply of McGonagall's sharp and capable characteristics. The idea made him smile briefly.

James' eyelids felt heavy, his limbs felt like lead and his entire body ached for sleep or restorative potions and draughts. Lily was weaving through the alleyway in front of him and Sirius, her bright red hair a beacon in his foggy vision.

He could hear Sirius breathing quickly, helping him along without question and was struck with a sudden sentimental bout of affection for his best friend.

And then was immediately disgusted with himself for being so soppy.

---

Was she leading them into an ambush? Lily had never trusted Peter, but she knew that Sirius and James and Remus trusted him without question and she thought that that should probably be enough for her.

Their path was deserted. Nobody would hear them scream if a pack of Death Eaters descended with frightening efficiency.

The idea sent a panicking spasm of shock through her mind. Something shifted in the shadow of a doorway and she bit back a hysterical scream.

Brushing her hair from her face, she stopped shaking and made a visible effort to slow down.

Peter was a member of the Order and no matter her feelings for the man, he would be here, because Dumbledore trusted him and that was that.

She arrived at the rendezvous point, as they'd agreed and stopped. With every passing second, she could feel her breath quickening, her muscles tightening, readying for some imaginary battle.

"What's happening?" asked Sirius sharply, he could feel it too, the faint instinctive tingle of approaching doom.

Lily was fully aware that she was panicking, overtired and hungry and seeing things that weren't there. Peter would come, he was just late as usual. Those thoughts didn't stop her heart beating double time in her chest and her palms breaking out into slippery sweat on her wand.

"Lily," James' quiet voice cut through her useless terror easily and she whirled around, her hair flying and her eyes wild. His calm hazel eyes held her captive and she stopped freaking out for a moment.

"Lily, what's wrong?" he stepped away from Sirius, towards Lily's frozen figure.

Lily would have told him everything, spilled her life secrets to him at that single moment. She wanted more than anything for him to comfort her, to lead her through this frightening war and all the terror it posed for their little group.

"Oh, sorry," Peter turned into the alleyway, looking pale and short and blond as he always did. "Were you guys waiting for me?"

Lily sighed and looked away, folding her arms to her chest and huddling into her long dark green robes. James grinned, forgetting about Lily Evans and her craziness for the moment.

"You're late," Sirius said, looking less uneasy, "You had me worried for a tick,"

"Well, hurry up, you lot," said Peter, ushering them closer to him and drawing an old coke bottle from underneath his black robes. "Dumbledore wants to speak to you,"


End file.
